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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Jackets fought; Gordon threw haymakers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech showed up for a basketball game Tuesday night in Bloomington, Ind., and a football game broke out. Or rather a football player broke out.
Eric Gordon is desribed as a physical player, unusual for a guard. I’d describe Indiana’s supremely talented freshman two-man as a Clydesdale with moves, a handle, a shooting stroke and a different set of rules by which to work.
He’s really, really good. No doubt. He’d be a heck of a running back, too. He should have been called for charging at least three times in Indiana’s 83-79 win over the Jackets.
Dude blasts to the basket with impunity. He has remarkable body control, and gets off a good shot often even with players leaning on him. Often though, there are defenders leaning on him because he runs into them.
His 3-pointer for a 75-65 lead was a blatant example of what I’m writing about. He hit Matt Causey twice, the second time knocking him backward while dribbling the ball. Then, he stepped back and drilled the long ball.
He’s the best player I’ve seen in two years. But it helps to have a different set of rules.
Even with Gordon, and all the talent of D.J. White (18 points, 14 rebounds) and a very nice — if short-staffed — supporting cast, the Hoosiers had their hands full.
If the Jackets play with that kind of intensity on a regular basis, and Zack Peacock and Maurice Miller knock off the rust accumulated from their recent injuries, Tech can compete with just about any college team I’ve seen on TV so far.
Tech hit 47 percent from the field, Indiana 49 percent.
Tech was out-rebounded 25-16 in the first half on the way to a four-point deficit, but had four more rebounds then Indiana in the second half, when both teams scored 45.
Tech had 17 assists and 13 turnovers. Indiana had 10 assists and 17 turnovers.
Tech outscored Indiana 40-30 in the paint, 16-9 on second-chance points, 13-4 in layup points, and 22-2 in bench points (helped hugely by Gani Lawal’s 17 points, three rebounds and three blocks in just 16 minutes).
It came down to this: Indiana hit 28 of 38 free throws, Tech 11 of 20. Sure, that’s bad free throw shooting by the Jackets, but the disparity in attempts was the difference.
Gordon hit 13 of 16 from the line. Yes, he puts the ball on the floor, and attacks, kind of like North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough does in the post. But after a while its silly watching almost every instance of contact ruled to be a blocking foul on the defensive team and NOT ONE charging call whistled on Gordon.
Peacock was rusty, Miller too. Lawal looked great, and Lewis Clinch is hitting his stride in consecutive games. (7 of his last 9 3-pointers). The Jackets had one really bad stretch, late in the first half, when they took some poor shots and missed some bunnies. Jeremis Smith hoisted and missed a 3-pointer, and another shot where he was standing on the line. Clinch missed two very short shots, D’Andre Bell and Lawal one each in that stretch as well as Indiana used some zone, a rarity for the Hoosiers.
Hewitt did not play Sheehan, Faye or Storrs. That probably doesn’t guarantee that they’re going to be out of the rotation, but Hewitt made it clear after the game that some of his players have been hard-pressed to learn that wanting to play doesn’t mean getting to play, and that playing times comes with the willingness to pay a price — max effort.
The return of Peacock, and the production of Lawal meant that Aminu played just 21 minutes. It doesn’t matter if he’s happy about this. It’s not about keeping everybody happy with their playing time. It’s about getting production. And again, Tech outscored Indiana 40-30 in the paint. The shorter player rotation worked, not that it’s the sole reason Tech’s effort was encouraging.
Tech lost to a talented team that played in a building where it has won 21 straight and was ticked after losing by 15 to Xavier Saturday. Plus, the Hoosiers got some home cooking, or at least Gordon did, from officials.
There were plenty of positive signs, less from any one player than from a collective sense of urgency the Jackets played with.
“That’s the type of effort you have to put out if you’re going to be a good basketball team,” Hewitt said. “I think we’re a talented group, but two of our losses early in the year I don’t think we sustained any kind of effort. If we keep doing that, and we get those guys that came back from injury to knock the rust off, we’ll be a better team.”
Asked why the Jackets were suddenly able to summon this energy, Hewitt — who earlier said that it also was apparent against Notre Dame last week — said, “Immaturity. That’s a great question.”
Pressed, he said, “Because they’re tired of losing. I’ve been preaching it every day of my life in this game. It’s a team game. Help the helper on defense, pass the ball, be in position to help your teammates out all the time. Good teams do it. Some teams take a little longer to get it. I think we’re going to be fine.
“If you watched the Greensboro game and this game, you’d say it was two totally different teams out there. Against Greensboro, we had no interest in helping anybody on defense. We didn’t defend well on screens. Today, I thought our effort was much better.”
It stinks being 3-3, but Tech looked like a very good 3-3 team last night, a team that may be able to make noise if they keep their internal noise in check, and pay the price.
